What Good are 75 Hummers Worth of Juice Pouches?

As you may know, TerraCycle partners with the public in what we call Brigades to collect everything from wine corks to Sharpie pens, and most famously, Capri Sun juice packs. Each piece collected earns 2 cents donated to the charitable organization or school of people's choice. Astoundingly, we just reached $1 million paid to Drink Pouch brigaders! That's 50 million pouches.To put that in perspective, those pouches collectively weigh as much as 75 Hummers, stacked they'd be as tall as 807 Mount Everests, and laid out would cover 2x the size of our home state of New Jersey. All of that, not going to landfills, but instead being made into products whose useful life will last much longer than how long it took to drink the juice out of those pouches. And that's just 1 of 26 things we collect, making 186 products out of them.

But what's even more amazing is the speed of which collection is happening is increasing.

It took us 2 1/2 years to reach the current milestone. And now we'll collect the same amount in 6 to 8 months! We couldn't have done it without the huge, enthusiastic participation of elementary schools, of which 42% in the U.S. collect for least one collection Brigade. Hearing about their experiences doing this has made it all the more worth it. From one teacher sparking a whole school to join in to parents of students having their own interest in the environment sparked by the enthusiasm of their children, it's been incredible.

With more than 11.5 million people in the US alone collecting waste, and room for a lot more, the momentum is unstoppable. And I couldn't be happier. For the environmental load lightened, for the children's schools benefited and perhaps most importantly, for all the minds opened and changed about how they interact with the world around them, the products they purchase, and what they do with them when they're done.